Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia

The official game of the annual Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament, the DS title offers a stunning simulation of the Trading Card Game, with users constructing, organizing and dueling using the stylus.

Details

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia’s story mode proceeds with a parallel story arch from the animated series involving the reprise of the Dark Signers and their quest for supremacy over New Domino City. After being banned to the Underworld, these Earthbound Immortals will stop at nothing to overthrow the rule of New Domino City and destroy Satellite. To defeat them, players will enlist the help of some of their favorite characters from the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe! Compete in story mode or free duel mode against Jack, Yusei or any of the 20 new characters to take on the Dark Signers in an epic battle to settle the score between light and dark!

The latest iteration of Yu-Gi-Oh! for the Nintendo DS expands on gameplay features to make this the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh! game with the most robust feature set EVER! Players now have 3,500 cards, including cards from the Absolute Powerforce series, to compete against friends or players worldwide via Wi-Fi connection. New features allow players to battle for the ultimate bragging rights by viewing leaderboards including their last 20 battles or using the new Wi-Fi ranking system to track win percentages against other duelists worldwide by elevating and decreasing their ranking based on the strength of opponents. With 3,500 cards, players can utilize the new Duelist Calculator to help quickly and accurately calculate attack and defense points while battling opponents! In addition, the Turbo Dueling, race mechanics have been enhanced to include obstacles, puzzles, hidden pathways and increased collection points.

In addition for Turbo Dueling, a new rule – Speed World 2 – a wealth of SP-Magic cards have also been added. In ‘Race’ games, the race mechanics have been enhanced to include obstacles, hidden pathways, and collection points. In Story Mode, puzzles that use gimmicks related to the maps have been implemented. Using the Duelist calculator, players of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME can quickly and accurately calculate life points, judge dice, and coins while battling opponents!

As has become traditional, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia includes three exclusive trading cards in package.

Reviews:

Yu-Gi-Oh! games are becoming the Madden NFL of collectible card games. Every year, another World Championship title ships and, somehow or another, Konami always manages to find some new twist for the series.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010 Reverse of Arcadia looks like a DS game. Character models are basic, but still look good. Rather than playing as a character from the show, Reverse of Arcadia lets you create your own custom duelist from a set of pre-made parts (most of which come from series characters, allowing for all kinds of interesting combinations). I originally thought my custom character would only show up as a portrait, but my choices also showed up on my in-game model. The details were pretty bare, but there was enough noticeable detail that it made for a cool experience.

The actual dueling interface is unchanged from past versions. Konami has found something that works and is sticking with it. The battlefield shows up on the bottom screen, while the top displays card information. The set up doesn’t make full use of the DS’s twin screens (meaning tiny cards and play area), but it’s more than playable. Monsters show up on the battlefield when cast, but the micro-cutouts aren’t very impressive.

Sound isn’t memorable. There’s a bit of a synth-rock beat going on behind duels and a few random sound effects, but nothing overly impressive or worth turning the sound off. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010 Reverse of Arcadia takes place in the 5D’s universe. Even after a few trips to Wikipedia, I still can’t figure out the plotline, other than there are groups of people at odds and card games, particularly Duel Monsters, are the weapon of choice. If only real life were that way, then my Magic: The Gathering skills might be worth something.

After creating a custom character and signing into the online leader boards, Reverse of Arcadia offers the choice between Story and World Championship Modes. Story takes your main character through a basic RPG experience. The story isn’t exactly clear, but it manages to ship you from point A to point B and offers plenty of opportunities for NPC duels. There are also a few minor puzzles to solve as you wander around the game world, but mostly you’re just picking fights with people so you can duel them. It’s silly, but it’s better than jumping into random duels with faceless opponents like older games.

World Championship is for players who would rather skip the Story and get into a bunch of random duels with faceless opponents. The mode offers a bunch of free duels with A.I. opponents or, if you can find a friend, Wi-Fi and Ad Hoc games. World Championship feels like a completely separate game from Story Mode, which is pretty cool for players who just like dueling. You can still win new cards and edit your deck, so you’re not missing out on anything if you skip the Story. Success is completely determined by your deck and, more to the point, how well you play it. An in-depth tutorial is available for players who are either new to the game or, like me, a little rusty on the newer card mechanics. It’s pretty typical for Yu-Gi-Oh! games to either stick you with a weak starting deck or just throw a bunch of cards at you. Either way, the early game is usually incredibly tough. Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010 Reverse of Arcadia tweaks the trend. Your starting deck isn’t great, but good enough to see you through until you can build up your own collection and create your own deck.

Even for newcomers, the mechanics of Duel Monsters is easy to pick up. Nearly anyone can jump into a game, but it takes a while to get a feel for how things work. Matches can turn on a dime, so even if you’re losing, there’s always a chance for something to change. To get you used to these situations, you can enter practice rooms that place you in scenarios you might face in a game. Training rooms are a great tool for beginners and vets; they offer insight on how certain mechanics work, but also explain how to use cards to escape dire situations. Matches play the same way they always have, but with a few new card mechanics. Monster cards are your main weapon, while others like traps and spells supplement your strategy. Most cards have some sort of effect on the game; some allow you to pull out powerful monsters early, while others can disrupt your opponent’s strategy. There over 3000 cards to collect over the course of the game, offering plenty of combinations and deck types. For newcomers, building a deck is a difficult experience, though as you play against new decks and see how cards work together, things become much clearer. Though it may not do wonders for your ego, it’s worth it to jump into a few multiplayer matches early on. You’ll lose a majority of your matches, but it’s a great way to understand the game’s inner workings.

Most matches follow the familiar Duel Monsters format, though Story Mode throws in a few tweaked matches to break things up. The more common alternate-rules match is Turbo. Matches play out the same as normal matches, but instead of dealing straight damage, your goal is to build up speed points. Turbo matches are an interesting diversion, though the strategies don’t feel as diverse.

Another type is Race Duels, which have very little to do with the actual card game mechanics. Instead, matches are based around actual racing with cards action like power-ups in Mario Kart. These were my least favorite type of match and are, thankfully, sparsely used.

Keeping up the Madden comparison, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010 Reverse of Arcadia is a known quantity. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll like what Reverse of Arcadia has to offer. Just the idea of online multiplayer is worth the upgrade. If you’re interested in the concept, Reverse of Arcadia is a great jumping on point.

Video Game Review: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s 2010 World Championship DS

Oct 9, 2010 by S. Rosebaugh-Nordan

The latest edition in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship series has added new cards and new gameplay elements, but falls flat in more ways than one.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s 2010 World Championship: Reverse of Arcadia for the Nintendo DS is the latest game in a long line of rpg’s that simulate the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG game. This set adds the largest number of cards to the series, nearly 4000, and has several “improved” features from previous titles. The overall package is fun and less expensive than playing the TCG, however there are a number of slipshod choices in this games design.

A Tale of Two Card Games

The basic setup of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s 2010 World Championship is as follows. There are two modes. The World Championship mode focuses on opponents with varying decks and themes. The story mode, conversely, is heavily focused on a poorly executed set of dialogue choices and card games. The avatar, created by players, is part of an evil cult and through a series of flashbacks and odd coincidences, ends up playing card games to try and save the world. Its ridiculous and makes very little sense, being completely ripped off from the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s anime, only retooled to include the player’s avatar.

While the story lacks any real suspense and only makes for padding, so that players have to run through it to unlock new cards, it does offer some interesting personalities and card players to battle. Unfortunately, this is all it does well. The story has minor puzzle elements which are more tedious than amusing and several racing sections that are intensely frustrating and do nothing more than drag out the story.

The avatar creation tool is fairly weak, however the customization in the game is very strong. Players can select any number of colors, hair styles, and costumes, as well as writing their own catch phrases and responses to various duel situations, allowing players to really imprint their personality on their avatar. Many of the customization options have to be found in the story mode however, padding it out even more.

Yu-Gi-Oh at its Best

The basic elements of the game are still very fun, following the rules of the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG. There are tutorials that allow novice Yu-Gi-Oh players to learn the elements of gameplay for all the new and old modes, along with a duel calculator and rulings for actual card games. The three basic card games play out in one of three ways. They can either play single player battles, which is one opponent fighting another, tag battles between teams of two, and turbo duels that require special decks and cards to play. These are handled well, though there are some hiccups, such as incredibly poor partner AI in tag duels.

Cards are unlocked in the duel shop by playing against specific opponents and while it is frustrating to not have access to all the cards at the start of the game, this does allow players to grow and get stronger as the game continues, giving a nice sense of growth and challenge. There are also several variations to the typical three card games. Puzzle duels give players a set of cards and force them to find the best way to win in one turn. Structure duels make players play with specific decks. And several story battles in game offer handicaps, such as reduced life, no cards in a player’s hand.

There is also Wifi play, so people can download duel opponents, banned lists, free cards, duel puzzles, and buy cards using wifi points, won by playing other players online. This is where the game’s reply value comes in as it is heavily supported through online play and human opponents make for more diverse battles than computer ones.

Yu-Gi-Oh at its Worst

The game is not without problems however. Load times can be excruciating during some duels, where the game will freeze for almost five minutes at a time while the opponent makes a single move. Tag duels are incredibly unfair, as the AI allies for players are incredibly thick, while the opponents are very strong. Playing with a computer ally is akin to paddling a canoe upriver with your arms asleep. Players will set up a brilliant strategy and the computer will just screw it up.

The wifi play is good, but suffers from the same loading times and similarly skewed difficulty. Other players usually shoot to kill, playing with one turn kill decks instead of experimenting. This scares off novice players, allowing only the hardest of hardcore players to get into the online game.

Turbo duels seem specifically designed to show off some of the newer cards and can be very limiting, as several cards are limited. They do offer some variety, however can only be played in story mode, whereas single player and tag battles can both be played in story or world championship mode.

One last complaint is that building decks is easy at first, but the filtering options for specific card types is limited, especially when players have upwards of two to thee thousand cards. As the game drags on, creating decks becomes more difficult and annoying.

Only for the Fans

At its core, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s 2010 World Championship: Reverse of Arcadia, is a nice update from the previous year. More cards are added and they at least try to introduce variation, even if some of the variations, such as the racing and turbo duels do fall a little flat. The game offers little story substance and will likely not draw new fans in, however for experienced players it will offer upwards of 100-200 hours of fun, with nigh on endless replayability, even if it does tend to get dull after a while.

This game is for Yu-Gi-Oh TCG, and possibly anime fans, only, as anyone else will be put off by the ridiculous story and difficulty of learning the rules. Copyright Stephen Rosebaugh-Nordan.

More coming soon…

Features:

Includes cards from the latest booster pack, “TBA”

Featuring 3,200 cards from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, more cards than any other Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship title

Includes 2 exciting modes of gameplay in one game, 5D’s Story Mode and World Championship Mode

Battle in single player mode or against Yu-Gi-Oh! gamers around the world via Wi-Fi